Sunday, September 08, 2013

Here Comes the AIPAC Lobbyists

Anyone who says that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) doesn't have political influence in Washington is either living in denial or lying. AIPAC is sending 250 lobbyists to Capitol Hill to convince Congress to support military action against the Assad regime in Syria. Haaretz reports on the lobbying effort.

"We plan a major lobbying effort with about 250 activists in Washington to meet with their senators and representatives," an AIPAC source said on Saturday.

For obvious PR reasons, AIPAC doesn't want action against Syria to be seen as an Israeli issue. That might be in part to Israel's lobbying effort for the Iraq war. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair admits to concernd for Israel factoring into invading Iraq.

"As I recall that discussion, it was less to do with specifics about what we were going to do on Iraq or, indeed, the Middle East, because the Israel issue was a big, big issue at the time. I think, in fact, I remember, actually, there may have been conversations that we had even with Israelis, the two of us, whilst we were there. So that was a major part of all this."

It is brilliant lobbying and foreign policy, on the part of Israel, to get the United States to fight Israel's enemies. If policy-makers in the United States keep getting letting themselves be suckers then you can't blame the Israeli government from taking advantage.